Chapter 314
Chapter 314
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 314
Chapter Title: God of What #1
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Delphi's summit was quiet after a dazzling storm had swept through.
The people lying flat on the ground weren't even breathing, or at least they weren't making a single tiny sound.
After some time had passed like that.
Rustling accompanied the first person to rise: the Great Oracle, Pythia.
“It's been over a hundred years since I received my role as Delphi's priest from the God of Light to guard this place... but this is truly the first time I've experienced something like this.”
That marked the point when people began lifting their shoulders and heads one by one, scanning their surroundings.
“Hypnos's Thirteen came here...! Indeed, truly Lord Hassan...!!”
Paranoy's loud outburst shattered the frozen atmosphere a bit.
“Hypnos's shallow gods have directly acknowledged that Lord Hassan is the son of Pluto, the rightful ruler of the Underworld and father of all the world's wealth...!!”
Frothing at the mouth with her noisy rant, Paranoy soon pointed to the ground. There, letters scorched into the rock by lightning stood out vividly.
『Hassan, son of the Lord of the Underworld. Now cast off this shallow chaos and claim your rightful authority.』
It was the truth laid bare.
All the worries I'd harbored until now unraveled easily before that short sentence etched into the rock.
Click.
The awkwardly empty puzzle piece slotted in, and the machine that had veered off course for lack of a single small screw began to function again, my world rebooting.
Son of the Lord of the Underworld, Hassan.
Lord of the Underworld (冥王).
There was only one terrifying symbol in this world whose name was dreaded even to utter. And it was family—my father was the god who had abandoned his throne and fled.
It sounded like total bullshit, impossible to comprehend, but it was fucking true.
Me, a divine bastard surpassing even a gold spoon!
But why had I been living like this?
Why the health center...?
It made no goddamn sense; my hair was going to fall out from frustration!
The emerging truth only spawned more questions swirling in my head. It was like the Hydra's heads—one cut off, and two more questions grew back, like some fucking magic lamp genie bullshit.
Was this really happening?
While I pondered in that vein, Paranoy climbed a tall pillar and shouted.
“Now, you no longer need to put on that foolish, idiotic Samaritan act...!! The time for world conquest, your long-cherished desire, has arrived...!!”
I'd been lost in all sorts of thoughts just moments ago, but seeing Paranoy blabbering away brought a cold rationality back to soothe my mind.
World conquest as my desire? A dream even I didn't know about. Had I ever said anything like that to Paranoy?
“For a long time—!”
Paranoy yelled even louder.
“For a long time, Pluto's cult endured oppression, and now the time has come to raise high our great cause once more, for the cult's prophets and holy warriors to spread Lord Hassan's name to the ends of the earth...!!!”
“Shut your nonsense, you idiot!”
“And to those who belittled us—especially me, the guardian of truth and keeper of secrets, the great nymph Paranoy—as heretics, we shall deliver fitting retribution, and destroy Hypnos for oppressing Pluto's cult...!!”
Heretic nymph Paranoy was brimming with rage.
How could such a tiny body and head contain flames of fury burning that fiercely? It was baffling.
“And I shall become the great Hell Border Count, the Imp of Hellfire, Paranoy...! In my domain, I'll erect statues of myself made from hardened honey and sugarcane...!! Anyone who licks them without my permission gets the death penalty...!!”
But that last part seemed to reveal her true feelings. Seeing that, I felt a slight relief that Paranoy was still Paranoy after all—right around then.
The sound of a sword being drawn, shing.
It was Hippolyte.
Her skin already red from the sun now even more flushed, she aimed her sword at me and Paranoy.
“Son of Pluto. So you were the being the heretics prophesied and awaited.”
The heretics' prophecy?
I wondered what that was, but several things immediately flashed in my mind.
From the heretic coma I'd met in Karan's swamp to Skizo, Pluto's holy warrior I'd taken down when I was on the brink of death.
They'd been spreading chaos, proclaiming that Pluto's one and only son would descend upon the land.
I'd thought it was the usual heretic nonsense, but now it rang fucking true. Shit, weren't those bastards on my side?
“No, wait. It's fucking true, but there's context.”
“The heretic raids on Sodomora, the sudden monster outbreaks— all of it was your scheme, wasn't it?”
Hummm—
A quiet yet intense wave of hostility poured from Hippolyte. Every pore on my skin stung like it was screaming, as if I were bathing in carbonation.
Had I ever seen Hippolyte this angry before? No.
I could vividly empathize now with the final feelings of the monsters, heretics, and bandits she'd faced.
“Speak, Hassan. Are you my enemy?”
Considering how Pluto's followers were treated in this kingdom, the reaction from a hero like Hippolyte was natural. Could I explain myself well?
Just then, Paranoy shouted.
“That's right...! It was all according to Lord Hassan's plan...! Foolish Mars Guild! Foolish Sodomora! Foolish Delphi! All danced to Lord Hassan's tune, used and manipulated...!”
“What was that plan? Answer me, Paranoy!”
“Th-that... It's a profound scheme in Lord Hassan's cosmic Dee Driver, so I can't reveal it...!”
What the fuck was this profound plan in the Dee Driver?
Paranoy seemed to be spouting whatever she'd overheard from the Oracle.
The problem was, it was working all too well on Hippolyte.
“Destroying the Mars Guild and recruiting its core force—me—that was all your plan too? You slipped into my vulnerable heart when I was at my weakest!”
Hippolyte was already scripting some scenario in her head.
“Tell the truth, Hassan! Were you deceiving us? Depending on your answer, you're a platinum-grade wanted target starting now!”
Platinum-grade wanted target?
Platinum adventurer requests were for city- or nation-scale subjugations, like the all-out battle with heretics on the plains.
Me, on that level?
No way. I'm the friendly neighborhood Hassan.
But Hippolyte looked deadly serious—maybe overly so.
Her brown eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging on her forehead like a steroid-pumped bulldog.
She was foaming at the mouth, ready to snap her leash and tear into my throat. Clearly out of her mind.
But I knew exactly how to calm her down.
This was the path of the Outer Way.
I'd sealed it deep in my inner Dee Drive, but with a knife fight about to break out, I had no choice.
I extended one finger toward Hippolyte.
Then, like casting hypnosis, I twirled it in the air.
This was my ultimate move, effective only on her. She'd know its power from experiencing my finger's might firsthand.
“Calm down, Lady Hippolyte.”
“Th-that... haaah—!”
Sure enough, Hippolyte clutched her breastplate, collapsing into a crouch like someone struggling to breathe. Paranoy cried out at the sight.
“Th-that's Lord Hassan's hellish ultimate technique, the thirty-seven-or-whatever-th! The Finger of Silence...!! Even the loudest gold-tier hero can't escape its wicked grasp...!!”
“You coward...! Hngh...!”
“Wow!”
Luna, who'd been quiet, raised both hands high to the sky.
“Hassan's, Hassan's the son of a god! Pluto was one of the Three Gods before falling to heresy! The king who trisected the world, ruler of the Underworld!”
“Hmm...”
“The prophecy that I'd become queen must mean queen of the Underworld! Luna Noxdoty, queen of hell!”
Luna looked thrilled. Gone was the girl who'd just thrown a tantrum at the Oracle about not wanting to marry the king.
“No wonder Hassan never seemed ordinary to me! I felt it the moment we met! Hassan, let's recreate the formless land teeming with great souls right here on earth!”
Luna seemed overly excited too. Recreating the formless land—the Underworld, right?
So wasn't what she was saying straight-up heretic talk?
For a moment, old memories surfaced.
Somnia, the heretic sorceress from Ideophe who'd tried to recruit Luna.
And Antiope, who saw Luna from Ideophe as a potential heretic and tried to eliminate her.
They'd all said Luna, being from Ideophe, wielded hellish magic and could fall to heresy anytime.
I'd dismissed it as nonsense back then, but watching Luna now, maybe they were right.
I imagined Luna leading zombies to raid cities and villages. It was so horrific I snapped out of the thought.
“R-release me now—! Wh-what are you tying me up for? You heretics, you're gonna use me as sacrifice in your secretive, lewd rituals! I know all about it! I'm a gold-tier awesome adventurer!”
Hippolyte, seemingly back to her senses, wriggled and thrashed about.
But no one had tied her up—why was she flailing like that? What was she asking to be released from?
“Sacrifices...! Offer sacrifices to bring hell upon this land...!”
“We're offering Hippolyte as the first sacrifice!”
Luna and Paranoy circled around, singing strange songs and dancing weirdly.
The scene was so chaotic and disjointed it felt utterly unreal. How to even describe it?
This place might as well be hell already.
Seeing how much I'd ruined everything, it felt like hell had already arrived. My head throbbed; I had no idea what to do—then.
“Haa—.”
Someone let out a huge sigh.
Turning, I saw Elfride—the only one seemingly calm—arms crossed, frowning.
“Everyone's so scatterbrained. I get we're all gassed up and out of it, but this is ridiculous.”
She even pointed at the smoke drifting around.
I asked.
“Gas...?”
Only then did I re-notice the hazy smoke filling our surroundings. Just as Elfride said, gas enveloped us all.
“This special sulfur seems to have hallucinogenic, mind-altering components. Prolonged exposure naturally leads to nonsense and visions. Elbheim had tons of this stuff, so I know.”
Elfride's words rang true.
Looking closely now, Luna, Hippolyte, and Paranoy all had dilated pupils, laughing and raging meaninglessly.
Come to think of it, Luna had mentioned this sulfur gas had bad stuff in it. So we were all in drug-induced euphoria?
Elfride added a few more words.
“Right now, we're all in a collective delirium. A god appearing before us? And you being his son? Doesn't make sense unless it's a hallucination.”
Sound reasoning.
“If you were really a god's son, you wouldn't have ended up enslaved in an illegal fight pit or whipped by me, right?”
Very logical. Amid the confusion, only Elfride judged coldly.
It cooled my head a bit too.
“But you seem fine, Elfride? This gas doesn't affect you?”
Maybe fire handlers have natural resistance to smoke and gas. As I pondered that pseudo-scientific idea—
“Gas can't stop me. I'm Elfride, the dragon that gnaws roots.”
“What? Who?”
“I'm actually a dragon. Arch-nemesis of eagles, friend of the squirrel Ratatoskr. Incarnation of ruin, born from flames of destruction. That's me.”
What the hell was she babbling?
She sounded more unhinged than Luna, Hippolyte, or even Paranoy.
Elfride spread five fingers toward me, claws out like a monster.
“See these awesome dragon claws? My nails can tear iron and scar the World Tree. And my wings can pierce the heavens in an instant!”
Wings?
Did Elfride have wings?
As I thought that, she launched into the billowing smoke, flailing arms and legs like swimming.
“Look! I'm flying above the clouds!”
Elfride had mistaken the rising sulfur smoke for clouds.
“Quick, shout praises to the fairest, strongest Dragon Elfride!”
I realized Elfride was also poisoned by the gas, lost in hallucinations. To think I'd been listening to her drivel!
This must be how the sole sane person among junkies feels.
Wait, was I sane? Was I hallucinating too?
Then came a strange, eerie chuckle.
“Hassan. You've got quite the entertaining crew.”
It was the Great Oracle Pythia.
“But they'll make fine companions, Hassan. The path ahead for you will be even harsher and more arduous.”
“The path I must take?”
“Son of the fugitive, build your own temple. Not inheriting your father's seat, but ascending to godhood on your own.”
Slither.
Pythia's small, huddled body on the ground began swelling enormously. Beyond the black veil emerged a long, massive serpent covered in red scales.
Pythia's true form was a gigantic serpent, like a dragon.
She opened her long, torn mouth and said.
“Well then, see you later.”
“Hey, won't you answer Elfride's question before you go?”
I glanced at Elfride flapping around above the mist.
She still hadn't received her prophecy. Hadn't she come all the way to Delphi for the Great Oracle?
The auspicious serpent Pythia replied.
“In my view, that girl from across the sea doesn't believe in fate or prophecies. So I have nothing to tell her. And that girl... no, that's beyond my purview.”
Slither slither.
As the serpent vanished from Delphi's summit into somewhere, I decided to pause my thinking.
Whoosh.
A strong wind brushed my forehead.
While everyone else was lost in illusions.
I alone awoke from the dream.